Herbert Daniel Landahl HerbertDanielLandahl 2009-06-27 22:07:53 2009-06-27 22:24:56 Biography CNS central nervous system mathematical biophysics of CNS central nervous system \section{Herbert Daniel Landahl} is an American mathematical biophysicist who was born in Fancheng, China, on April 23, 1913. He obtained with {\em Magna Cum Laude} his AB degree at St. Olaf College in 1934, and then earned this SM in Physics at the University of Chicago in 1936. He then became very interested in mathematical biophysics and was the world's first PhD student to graduate in Mathematical Biophysics at the University of Chicago in 1941 under the supervision of Professor Nicolas Rashevsky, the Founder of Mathematical Biophysics and Mathematical Biology. \subsection{Academic career} He worked at first as a Research assistant in the Psychometrics Laboratory at the University of Chicago (1937-39), and transferred to continue research in mathematical biophysics as a Research Assistant in the Dept of Physiology between 1939 and 1942. After graduation in 1941 he was able to continue as a Research Associate of Professor Nicolas Rashevsky bewteen 1942 and 1945). he was then promoted successively as to a tenured track Assistant Professorship in 1945, and to the tenured position of Associate Professor and full Professor of Mathematical Biology between 1948 and 1958. he became a full Professor of Biophysics in 1964 and continued to work as full professor at the University of Chicago (UC) until 1968 when he was lured by the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) after the former UC president declined to promote him to the Chair of the Committee for Mathematical Biology as Nicolas Rashevsky's successor upon the latter's planned retirement in 1969. As a result of the insuing disagreement between Rashevsky and the UC president, Rashevsky resigned in 1968 and moved to Ann Arbor in Michigan.